Yesterday, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, the electric car company, announced that Tesla would make its patents freely available to competitors. To many people this announcement seemed surprising if not shocking. After all, the conventional wisdom holds that patents are essential to keep competitors from imitating innovations, especially for small startup companies. If rivals imitate, they will drive down prices, wiping out the potential profits on innovation, thus making it difficult or impossible to earn a return on R&D investments.
History Backs Up Tesla’s Patent Sharing
From textiles to steel, the precedent for Elon Musk’s latest move.
June 13, 2014
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Excel in a world that's being continually transformed by technology.